Surya Devi (died 715), was an Indian Hindu Princess of Sind. She is known for having been the war booty of the Umayyad army commander Muhammad bin Qasim during the Umayyad conquest of Sindh and given along with her sister as slaves to Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. According to the traditional story, she persuaded the Caliph to execute Muhammad bin Qasim, avenging her parents, and then managed to eskape the captivity of the harem by having the Calph execute her and her sister.
Life[edit]
She was the eldest daughter of Dahir of Aror, the Maharaja of Sind.
In 711 CE the kingdom was invaded by the Umayyad Caliphate led by Muhammad bin Qasim. Her father was killed at the Battle of Aror which took place between his dynasty and the Arabs at the banks of the Indus River, near modern-day Nawabshah at the hands of the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim. His body was then decapitated and his head was sent to the governor of Basra, Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.
One of the king's widows, Queen Rani Bai, resisted the invading forces at the fortress of Rawar. When she realised she was unable to win, she committed suicide by the jauhar rite. When the city of Brahmanabad fell, the dead king's second Queen, Rani Ladi, was captured with Dahir's two daughters, the princesses Surya Devi and Parimal Devi. The victorious conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim made the dowager queen Rani Ladi his concubine (personal sex slave) by nikah,[1] while the two princesses, being unmarried young virgins, were reserved for the Caliph's personal use, and sent on as presents to the Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik for his harem in the capital of Damascus.[2]
The Chach Nama narrates a version in which Surya Devi played a role in the death of Muhammad bin Qasim. The account relates that when the Caliph wished to rape Surya Devi, she told him that she was no longer a virgin, since Muhammad bin Qasim had raped her and her sister before sending them on. As a response, the Caliph ordered that Muhammad was wrapped and stitched in oxen hides,[3] and sent to Syria, which resulted in his death en route from suffocation.[4] This narrative attributes their motive for this subterfuge to securing vengeance for their father's death. When the Caliph showed the corpse of Muhammad ibn Qasim to Surya Devi to illustrate the fate of anyone dishonoring or disobeying the Caliph, she reportedly answered that she had lied about Muhammad Bin Qasim, since she did not wish for her or her sister to become a slave in the Umayyad harem of the Caliph, and wished to have vengeance on her father's murderer.
Upon discovering this subterfuge, the Caliph is recorded to have been filled with remorse and ordered the sisters buried alive in a wall.[5][6][7]
References[edit]
- ^ End of ‘Imad-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Qasim. The Arab Conqueror of Sind by S.M. Jaffar - Quarterly Islamic Culture, Hyderabad Deccan, Vol.19 Jan 1945
- ^ End of ‘Imad-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Qasim. The Arab Conqueror of Sind by S.M. Jaffar - Quarterly Islamic Culture, Hyderabad Deccan, Vol.19 Jan 1945
- ^ Pakistan, the cultural heritage by Aḥmad Shujāʻ Pāshā Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1998, Page 43
- ^ Balouch, Akhtar (8 April 2014). "Muhammad Bin Qasim: Predator or preacher?". Dawn. Pakistan. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
- ^ The Chachnamah, An Ancient History of Sind, Giving the Hindu period down to the Arab Conquest. (1900). Translated from the Persian by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg. Karachi: Commissioners Press.
- ^ Keay, pg. 185
- ^ Iqtidar Husain Siddiqi (2010). Indo-Persian Historiography Up to the Thirteenth Century. Primus Books. p. 32. ISBN 9788190891806.